Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sits before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four as he seeks confirmation as U.S. secretary of state, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerry, who is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval, is President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who is stepping down after four years as America's top diplomat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sits before the committee he has served on for 28 years and led for the past four as he seeks confirmation as U.S. secretary of state, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kerry, who is likely to face friendly questioning on a smooth path to approval, is President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who is stepping down after four years as America's top diplomat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., President Barack Obama's nominee to become secretary of state, gives a 'thumbs-up' as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, to testify before his confirmation hearing before the committee to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, testifies on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, before Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - This Jan. 7, 2013 file photo shows, President Barack Obama and his choice for Defense Secretary, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, left, and his choice for new CIA Director, current Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, John Brennan in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Minutes after his inauguration speech Monday, President Barack Obama signed documents officially submitting top administration nominations to the Senate. Obama affirmed the nominations of John Brennan to be director of the CIA, former Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense, Sen. John Kerry to be secretary of state and Jack Lew for Treasury secretary. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
The Senate confirmation process is a minefield for many presidential nominees. But Sen. John Kerry seemed to navigate those waters safely at his confirmation hearing to be secretary of state.
The Massachusetts Democrat was treated gently on Thursday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ? even by the same Republicans who relentlessly grilled outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a day earlier on the administration's handling of the deadly September terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
It doesn't hurt that Kerry ? widely scorned by Republicans in 2004 when he was the Democratic presidential nominee? is the panel's present chairman and popular with colleagues of both parties.
"You're ready to go," said Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top-ranking Republican. "My sense is your confirmation will go through very, very quickly."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called his fellow Vietnam War veteran "my friend" and told members Kerry's qualifications for the job "are well known to you and all of our colleagues."
It won't be nearly as smooth for President Barack Obama's nominations of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel for defense secretary or John Brennan to head the CIA.
Both are sure to face tough questioning from senators? Hagel about past statements on Iran, gays and Israel; Brennan, now the top White House counterterrorism adviser, on the Benghazi attack.
Kerry and the committee members were clearly comfortable with each other.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the incoming chairman, wondered how Kerry would be able to "explain to world leaders how you could have been rooting for the Boston Red Sox instead of what the world knows is the New York Yankees as the team of the world."
Kerry laughed it off.
And the clear affection didn't only flow from the committee to Kerry.
Here's how he kicked off his testimony: "Let me say I've never seen a more distinguished and better looking group of public officials in my life."
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Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
Associated Press
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